The Bases Are Loaded; Minor League Baseball Is on a Streak, but How Many Teams Are Too Many?

THERE will be speeches. A politician or two will limber up a rusty arm to lob ceremonial first pitches. An umpire will shout the traditional command, and minor-league baseball will come to Long Island, following a trend that has swept the New York region.

The debut of the Long Island Ducks this Friday night, in a gleaming new $19.9 million stadium in Central Islip, will follow a script that has played out several times in just the last six summers in New Jersey, Connecticut and the Hudson Valley. Last year, it happened in Newark and Bridgewater. The year before it was Bridgeport, Conn., and Atlantic City. Next year, under current plans, it will be Camden.

A decade ago, the region had only one minor-league team, in New Britain, Conn. This season, with the arrival of the Ducks and new teams in Queens and the Catskills, there will be 16 teams playing in four leagues within 100 miles of Times Square.

Baseball executives cite two overriding reasons for the growth in the region and elsewhere: the popularity of two baseball movies in the past dozen years, ''Field of Dreams'' and ''Bull Durham,'' and new, fan-friendly stadiums, most of them built with taxpayer money from cities and towns that have turned to the sport for help in reviving run-down or dormant neighborhoods and polishing their images. These communities have pumped millions of state and county dollars into new stadiums; the Ducks alone have reaped nearly $20 million in public funds for their new stadium.

In many places, the investment appears to have paid off. The success of Trenton's team has led to construction of an arena and other new development. Bridgeport, too, is building an arena. The Ducks' new stadium finishes a major redevelopment project in Central Islip that includes a gleaming new federal courthouse, a state courthouse and hundreds of units of new housing.

But as the roster of teams grows, some of the ball clubs are starting to ask how many are too many. In Connecticut, where some of the older teams are leery of an upstart in Bridgeport and a proposed team in Hartford, the old guard is starting to snipe at the newcomers and fret about them muscling in on their territory.

And some industry analysts are wondering just how long the interest will last, and what will happen to public investments if the novelty wanes.

''There certainly is going to be a saturation point,'' said Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a student of baseball finance. ''I think they may be pushing up against it now. But the jury's still out.''

For now, experts say a mix of novelty and a fresh love for the age-old essence of baseball has made the minor leagues appealing.

''It represents an older America that we crave,'' said Michael Aaron Rockland, chairman of the American studies department at Rutgers University. ''It represents a softer, sweeter, slower time. Most of us are sick and tired of living by the clock. Here's a game that doesn't go by the clock. Baseball offers us a vision of peace, quietude and timelessness.''

Such qualities can also be applied to major-league baseball. But promoters of the minor-league variety add a few more nouns, like value and intimacy. Their games are affordable for most families, with most tickets priced under $10, rivaling movies, bowling alleys and amusement parks.

The new stadiums are closer to home for many fans; the Ducks' new EAB Stadium, for instance, is a godsend for Long Islanders weary of trips west to Shea and Yankee Stadiums.

Lou Ottens of Clinton has forsaken the Yankees for the Somerset Patriots, now two years old, in their new brick and steel stadium in Bridgewater. ''Traffic on the George Washington Bridge and the stadium parking lots are too much of a hassle,'' Mr. Ottens said. ''Now I just have to go 20 minutes from my home.''

Mr. Ottens stopped by the ballpark the other day and bought seven tickets for the Patriots second home game for $59.50. He and his wife plan to share them with any of their 20 nieces and nephews who want to go to the game. Such an outing to Yankee Stadium would have been too expensive, he said.

''Plus, I honestly feel these players will give you a better game than the guys in the majors because they have something to prove,'' he said. ''They're working with a goal -- they want to get to the majors. Sometimes I feel the guys already there don't particularly give you a good game sometimes.''

Bob Tait and his wife, Marion, have tickets for half the Patriots' 70 home games. ''It's absolutely great entertainment,'' Mr. Tait said. ''There's thousands of people around here who can't get away from taking care of their kids, so they just take them to the ballpark. It's safe, it's wholesome, it's close to home, and there's great community spirit.''

Joe Tozzi, 42, of Piscataway, came to buy two Patriots polo shirts in the park's gift shop, well stocked with team umbrellas, waste cans, caps, clothing and seat cushions. He saw several games last summer with his brother Phil and his nephew, 9, and niece, 5. ''It's not as restraining for the kids as Yankee Stadium, where they have to stay in their seats,'' he said. ''Here, they can walk around. It's like a big picnic. Everybody seems to know everybody else.''

Last season, the 13 minor-league clubs that played in the region drew nearly 2.7 million fans. The Yankees drew 3.3 million fans, a team record, and the Mets attracted 2.8 million, and officials of both teams say they are not worried about losing fans.

''There's enough baseball fans out there,'' said Jason Zillo, a spokesman for the Yankees. ''People want to see good baseball and right now we're providing that to the fans.''

But David Howard, the Mets senior vice president for business affairs, criticized the level of play on teams without organizational links to the majors.

''While it may be entertainment, it's not going to be high quality baseball,'' Mr. Howard said. ''When the fans come out to Shea, they will appreciate even more so that we have the best athletes in the world playing the game on an entirely different level.''

The new ballparks hold from 5,000 to 7,000 fans. They all have bright, well-stocked concession stands, seating close to the field and excellent sight lines. Most have picnic pavilions and playgrounds, video arcades, plenty of music and flashy outfield scoreboards with big video screens. Team mascots mingle with fans. Children celebrating birthdays are serenaded by the stadium organist, with the fans joining in. Players are routinely made available for autographs. Promotional giveaways are common. Before the Atlantic City Surf's games, the team president, Ken Shepard, sells freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, 2 for $1, behind home plate.

Cultural experts say something deeper than gimmickry has spurred the resurgence. Sean Wilentz, a history professor at Princeton University and director of its American Studies Program, cites ''baby boomer nostalgia.''

''You feel closer to the players, closer to the other fans,'' Professor Wilentz said. ''It's a more human feel. And then there's all this cornball stuff, the little contests. It's much more community-oriented. And there's none of the drunkenness and vulgarity you see at some major-league stadiums.''

Fifty years ago, long before the minor leagues refashioned themselves as family-friendly, the teams were little more than training grounds for potential major-leaguers in hundreds of small towns and moderate-sized cities. At the height of their popularity in 1949 the leagues drew nearly 40 million fans.

But in the early 1950's, attendance started eroding with the rapid spread of television and home air-conditioning, said Miles Wolff, commissioner of the Northern League, one of the five independent leagues. The slump continued during the Vietnam War and the sour political and cultural mood it created, he said. By 1969, minor-league attendance had slipped to about 10 million. It remained stagnant for about 15 years. Now it's back to where it was before, with attendance of 40.2 million in 1999.

At the game's low point in the New York region a decade ago, only New Britain fielded a team.

Then in 1994 and 1995, three new regional teams joined New Britain in the Eastern League, a Class AA league two steps below the majors: The Trenton Thunder (Red Sox), the Norwich Navigators (Yankees) and the New Haven Ravens (Mariners). At the same time, the New York-Penn League, a Class A league, three rungs below the majors, came to the region with the Hudson Valley Renegades (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) in Fishkill in Dutchess County, and the New Jersey Cardinals (St. Louis) in rural Sussex County. Last season, the league added the Staten Island Yankees (Yankees) and this summer will add the Queens Kings (Toronto).

Fan acceptance of the two affiliated leagues has attracted two independent leagues, the Atlantic and the Northern. Neither is bound by the restrictive territorial rules that govern minor leagues linked to the majors. Therefore, they can play wherever they are welcome.

The Atlantic has five teams playing this season in the region, and the Northern has three, The New Jersey Jackals, at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls; the Waterbury (Conn.) Spirit and the Catskill Cougars in Mountain Dale, N.Y., near Monticello. The eight independent teams draw their players from youngsters never signed by major league teams and veterans who once played in the affiliated minor leagues or the majors and hope to return to them.

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The Atlantic League, now entering its third season, has been the most bullish about expansion, emphasizing baseball as a tool of urban renewal. Its attractive new stadiums, all publicly financed, have gone up in Atlantic City, Bridgeport, Newark and Bridgewater.

Now, the Long Island Ducks start play in the Atlantic League, with Bud Harrelson, star shortstop for the Mets a generation ago and a team co-owner, serving as its manager. The mastermind of the Ducks, and the Atlantic League, is Frank Boulton, the team chairman now enjoying a happy ending to a campaign he started in the early 1990's to bring professional baseball to his native Long Island.

''It's very rewarding, a great sense of accomplishment,'' Mr. Boulton said of the Ducks, the league's seven other teams, and the one planned for Camden next summer. ''Some people like to say I have great vision. I like to say I have a hard head.''

Mr. Boulton, 49-year-old former high school catcher in Brightwaters, his hometown, is the renegade of the region's baseball world. He once was an executive in the Yankee system and a vice president of the Eastern League. He wanted to transfer a Yankee farm team from Albany to Long Island. But the Mets vetoed the move in 1993 as a violation of their territorial rights.

Instead, Mr. Boulton created the Atlantic League, free of the rules giving major-league clubs and their farm teams power to keep new teams from their territories. The newcomers have sharpened competition for fans and shrunk the older teams' geographic markets. Of the four Atlantic League teams now playing, the Somerset Patriots and Bridgeport Bluefish have been the most popular, drawing home crowds last year that averaged 5,235 and 4,571, respectively. Of all the regional teams, only the Trenton Thunder drew more, an average of 6,197.

Officials of the Somerset club, brimming with confidence after a successful first year, now want to set up a team in Bergen County, New Jersey's most populous county. The county executive, William Schuber, is enthusiastic and has ordered a feasibility study. But members of Bergen's Board of Chosen Freeholders have vowed to block any use of public parkland or public money for a stadium.

''Why should taxpayers pay for a private business?'' asked the board's most vocal critic, James J. Sheehan. ''This is not an essential. I'm opposed to subsidizing the entertainment industry. If it's so successful, they should get financing from a bank.''

Mr. Boulton suggested that Camden may be the Atlantic League's last team in New Jersey.

''It's getting pretty dense there,'' he said. ''We have to be real smart about our growth.''

For now, he said, the league is looking at Massachusetts and Virginia as possible expansion sites. The league already has teams in Maryland, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Economic development and other government officials praise the urban renewal value of the teams and the new stadiums, more for burnishing the images of downtowns and enticing new investment than creating thousands of new inner-city jobs. The Newark Bears' new stadium opened last year a few blocks from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which opened in 1997 and started the city's downtown renaissance.

George Gatta, deputy Suffolk County executive of planning and economic development, said the Long Island Ducks' new stadium completes the transformation of ''one of the worst neighborhoods'' in the county.

And in Bridgeport, Conn., the 18-acre waterfront site where the Bluefish play was once filled with abandoned factories and stores, empty gasoline stations and some burned-out houses. Now a $45 million, 10,000-seat arena and a 900-car parking garage for railroad commuters and baseball fans are going up at the site.

Michael Freimuth, Bridgeport's director of planning and economic development, said the stadium had changed the image of that piece of downtown Bridgeport. Commuters passing the site on the Metro-North Railroad once saw abandoned factories covered with graffiti. ''Now they see 5,000 fans waving at them,'' Mr. Freimuth said. ''That changes one's mind-set about an older city. If image improves, value increases and value draws investment.''

The same thing has happened in Trenton since Mercer County and the state invested $21 million for the ballpark that opened on the Delaware River in 1994.

An empty factory filled the plot, and private developers had no interest in it. The county government gambled on a minor-league stadium, at the time a rarity in New Jersey. The Thunder prospered beyond expectation. The stadium has spurred major riverfront redevelopment, including a county-financed $52 million arena for minor-league hockey and basketball, conversion of an abandoned steel factory into 500 units of senior-citizen housing and a strip mall and supermarket, new office buildings and a new nightclub.

''It's not the cure-all, but it certainly got the image of Trenton changed for the positive,'' James Lambert, executive director of the Mercer County Improvement Authority, said of baseball.

But last season, when the Somerset Patriots moved in about 20 miles north of Trenton, the Thunder's average home attendance dropped to 6,197 from 6,628. That still left the Thunder ranked among the top 25 minor-league clubs in the country, but it was the team's first attendance drop in its six seasons of play.

Rick Brenner, the team's general manager, said the Patriots were not a factor in the drop. He blamed highway construction near the stadium, which caused the cancellation of six afternoon games popular with day campers. Both Mr. Brenner and officials in Somerset said they did not believe the two teams were competing for fans.

Similarly, officials of the Newark Bears and the New Jersey Jackals said they did not think they were chasing the same fans, even though their stadiums were only about 10 miles apart.

''There are probably still a million people in northern New Jersey who don't know about the New Jersey Jackals,'' said Leo Kirk, the team's general manager. ''In two to three years, we'll probably have saturated the market enough to know where we stand with the Bears.''

Joseph Seneca, chairman of the New Jersey Council of Economic Advisers and a vice president for academic affairs at Rutgers, said the region's economy was at its strongest point in a generation. The minor-league expansion, Dr. Seneca said, was not stretched too thin.

''This region can accommodate a lot,'' he said. ''It's a huge market.''

But in Connecticut, the three Eastern League teams are jittery about competition. Attendance for the New Haven and Norwich teams had already been slipping when the Bridgeport Bluefish came to their new stadium in 1998. The Bluefish drew an average crowd of about 4,500 last year, while New Haven and Norwich had averages of about 2,900 and 3,700, respectively. Both the Ravens and Navigators had drawn more than 4,000 people in their first two years of operation in 1994 and 1995.

Executives of Connecticut's older teams have started fighting back against the newcomers by touting their major-league affiliations and criticizing the newer teams' play as bush league.

William F. Dowling, an owner of the New Britain Rock Cats and a former Yankee executive, called the quality of baseball in the independent leagues ''glorified American Legion.''

''We've got bona fide potential major leaguers,'' he said. ''All you get in the independents are some retreads and players no one else is interested in.'' In Norwich, the uniforms of the Navigators this season will sport the Yankees' logo of top hat and bat as a reminder that the team is part of the Yankee system.

''What's Bridgeport going to do, put a fish on their uniforms?'' said Norwich's general manager, Brian Mahoney.

But Mr. Boulton, head of the Ducks and the Atlantic League, called criticism of his league's players unfair. He said half of the league's 150 players last season had once played in the major leagues and many were hoping to return. Mr. Boulton said he believed the league's players were closer to AAA, the top level of player development, than to Class A or the instructional leagues, the lowest farm teams with the rawest prospects just out of high school or college.

Mr. Kirk, general manager of the Jackals of the Northern League, said that league considered its quality of play to be somewhere between Class A and AA. ''As long as we're good and competitive, it doesn't make any difference if it's A or double-A or triple-A,'' Mr. Kirk said. ''Frankly, the people don't care if they're having a good time.''

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A version of this article appears in print on April 23, 2000, on Page NJ14 of the National edition with the headline: The Bases Are Loaded; Minor League Baseball Is on a Streak, but How Many Teams Are Too Many?. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe